


This isn’t about me

by orphan_account



Category: The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals - Team StarKid
Genre: Dad figure hidgens, Gen, proof reading is for ppl with time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-28
Updated: 2019-05-28
Packaged: 2020-03-26 07:07:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19000834
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Emma stands up to some students who aren’t nice to Hidgens, Hidgens stands up to the same students who aren’t nice to Emma





	This isn’t about me

“The exam isn’t until the end of the month, but if you need some extra revision I can always find some papers for you,” Hidgens advised yet another anxious student who had hunted him down outside his office. “But I’ve seen your work, you’ll do just fine,” he smiled.  
“Thank you, Professor,” the girl smiled. She had started to say something else but he felt someone collide directly into his back and hold on tightly to his coat. He took a moment to process what had just happened, everything his student was saying drowned out.   
He titled his head ever so slightly to look over his shoulder.   
Emma was hiding behind his back, watching the hallways closely.   
“Sorry, can you please repeat that?” He asked the student. “Just old age getting to me,” he improvised.   
The student had only requested extra revision papers.   
“I’ll get those to you as soon as I can, now, if you’ll excuse me,” he waved goodbye to his student before exhaling loudly.   
“What are you doing, Emma?” He asked.  
“I’m hiding!” She hissed back. “You’re really tall, can you just stand still for a moment?”  
“And what are you hiding from?” He asked, surveying the halls calmly.   
“I started a fight in the library,” she answered, her voice lacked any sort of guilt but she did sound embarrassed.   
“And why’s that?” He straightened his stance, crossing his arms to give her more space to hide behind.   
“Some guy was just breathing down my neck. I told him to back off and he said ‘what’re you gonna do about it?’” She put on a mocking voice. “And so I told him I wasn’t afraid, and he said ‘well I’m definitely not afraid! You’re a four foot tall bitch!’ And I said ‘hey! I’m nearly five foot, but I could totally beat you up.’ And then we got kicked out of the library,” she recounted, switching between her voice and her mocking one.  
Hidgens chuckled, wiping sweat off his forehead. “And what part of that story are you leaving out?”   
“He’s like, six foot tall,” she mumbled. She sounded like she was going to say more but remained quiet.  
“Well I’m glad you were smart enough to know not to fight him,” Hidgens sighed.  
“He’s been following me around the halls. I feel like he’s gonna corner me in an alleyway and beat the shit out of me,” she cursed. “God! Can’t he just drop it?” She snapped.   
“Do you know his name?”   
“No,” Emma grumbled. “He’s that one guy who sits in the second back row in Bio, the one with that really weird hair cut.”   
“Tyler?”   
“Yeah! Him!”   
“Well for starters,” without revealing Emma’s hiding spot he turned around and opened up his office door, ushering her in and shutting it behind her. “His haircut isn’t that awful, and it’s that sort of talk that got you in trouble in the first place.”   
Emma let her shoulders fall. “Sorry.”   
“Now, do you want to tell me the whole story?”   
Emma gaped, her hands anxiously balling up in fists. “That was the whole story, Professor.”   
“It clearly isn’t,” he watched her hands twitching angrily. “You’re more upset over this than you should be.” She always called him ‘professor’ when she was lying.   
Emma pinched the bridge of her nose. “I just can’t stand Tyler.” She let out a nasally sigh. “He’s a jerk.”   
“Did he say something to you?”  
“No, he was just bothering me,” she cast her eyes down, rubbing her forehead.   
Hidgens squinted. There was something she wasn’t telling him. “But I just want him to leave me alone. There’s no chance you could kick him out of the class could you?”   
“Unless he physically attacked you, then no I can’t.”  
“I’m willing to take that hit.”   
“I can’t kick him out if you provoked him.”  
“Pretend you didn’t hear anything then.” She rolled up the sleeves of her jacket. “He’s a bad man, Hidgens!” She raised her voice too loud, even Hidgens cringed at the volume.   
There came a sudden laughter from the other side of the office door that unmistakably belonged to Tyler, mingled in with the laughter of his friends.  
“See what I fucking told you!” One of them laughed. “They’re following me!”  
Hidgens glanced over at Emma.   
Her face was red with anger and she could barely contain it.   
“I’m going to fucking kill him,” she spat.   
“No you aren’t,” Hidgens patted her on the back. “I’ll deal with this for you.”   
“Ah!” All of the red drained from her face and she tried to stop Hidgens exiting. “No it’s fine!” She was hyper-aware of keeping her voice down now, barely raising it above a whisper.   
“Nonsense, dear. I’ll handle this for you.”   
She made one last futile attempt to persuade him not to but he opened the door.   
Tyler was standing outside with his friends, not quite hiding but attempting to appear subtle. They didn’t frown for being caught out, in fact, they were all smiling like they had proven a point.   
“Tyler, can I speak to you for one moment?”   
His friends teased him, elbowing him in the back as he shuffled into the office.   
“Emma, can you excuse us?” He asked.   
The girl looked like she was about to launch herself at him. She looked so angry he thought he would have to physically remove her from his office. She elbowed Tyler on her way out with a growl.   
“Now,” he sat down in his office chair. “What’s your side of the story?”   
Tyler scoffed in much the same way Emma would. “Nothing happened. She’s just overreacting,” he kept the same small yet self-assured grin on his face because he knew no one could prove anything. “Even ask her.” He lingered by the door. “There’s nothing even wrong.”   
It was becoming increasingly obvious that something was being hidden from him.   
“Thank you, Tyler. You can go now, we’ll sort this out.”   
“What did he tell you?” Emma burst back in through the door the second he left. She seemed more frightened than angry at this point.   
“He told me nothing. I’m clearly not getting the whole story. Would you care to fill me in?”   
Emma shrugged, making herself as small as possible. “He just said some stuff that made me mad. It’s fine, I can deal with it.”   
“What did he say, Emma?”   
“Just some rude shit, it was pointless,” she crossed her arms, studying the floor.   
“About you?”  
She shook her head. “Not really.”  
“Paul?”  
“Oh, hah, no. Not him. They don’t even know Paul.”   
“Then what is it?” He raised an eyebrow, coming over to her to put his hands on her shoulders. “You know you can tell me. It’s clearly upsetting you.”  
Emma mumbled something.   
“Excuse me?”   
“They were saying bad stuff about you,” she paused for a second but couldn’t wait for his reply. “And I really gave them shit for it! They can’t say stuff like that about you!”   
Hidgens placed a hand on his heart although he wasn’t sure whether it was out of shock or surprise that someone had stood up for him.   
“They called you old and they said you should retire and that you’re going crazy and-and- ugh!”   
“Well he wasn’t wrong though, was he?”  
“Huh?” Emma took in a breath of air.   
“It’s not like I can work here much longer.”  
“That’s not the point! They were being rude! They pissed me off, when I tried to stand up for you they called me a pet and I just wasn’t in the mood to deal with that shit.”   
“Sorry,” Hidgens cleared his throat, his eyes darting to the door. “What did they call you?”   
Emma looked offended for a split second. “Hey, this is about you not me.”  
“No, no, repeat yourself. What’d he call you?”   
Emma wrapped her hands around a fist he didn’t know he was making. “You can’t hit a student, Hidgens.”   
“What’d he call you?”   
“He called me a pet- it’s not a big deal, it was only to make me mad. The real problem is-!”   
“No I think I know what the real problem is. Emma, you’re free to go home for the day. I’ll handle this. I’ll see you in the morning, dear,” he spoke loud enough to cut her off from saying anything else as he ushered her out the door.   
“Wait, Professor!”   
“Have a good night, Emma.”

———————————————————

Emma sat closer to the door the next day. She expected Tyler or any of his friends to bust through the door and come for her but they never did. She was so on the edge of her seat she couldn’t actually remember what the lesson was about.   
When Hidgens dismisses the class he seemed rather pleased with himself. As students slowly poured out of the classroom the professor walked up the steps to greet her.   
“What happened to him?” She asked, half expecting to see blood under his fingernails.   
Hidgens laughed, escorting her down to the door. “Nothing dear, I shifted him to night classes instead of morning classes.”   
“Oh, was it that simple?”   
“There were a few strings I had to pull but it was nothing too difficult,” he winked in a way that suggested whatever he did was certainly not supposed to happen. “He shouldn’t bother you again.”   
“But what about you?” Emma asked, stopping in her tracks. “This wasn’t about me remember?”   
The professor blinked. “It wasn’t?”   
“No? Tyler was...” Emma didn’t think Hidgens had forgotten. He was almost definitely ignoring it for her sake. She sighed and gave a defeated smile. “Thanks professor.”


End file.
